I was chatting to the biggest, strongest guy at my gym yesterday. He's a cool guy, very helpful if you ask him a technique question, and very motivating to train with.

We were talking nutrition yesterday, and he told me he eats 900 grams of protein a day! I thought he was kidding at first but that's really what he eats. He weighs 100k, so i guess that's llke 220lbs or so. So it's like 4g of protein per lb of bodyweight (approx).

I weigh 180 and aim for 200 - 250g a day, I never get less than 200 and I rarely go over 250 (although I do sometimes, but not usually by much).

I was wondering what others on the forum eat, and what you would consider to be the upper limit regarding protein consumption? What I mean is, at what point does it become unnecessary?

900 grams/protein would be 3600 calories. Assuming that he gets 20% of calories from fat, being about the minuimum requirement, and about 10% carbs, being about the minimum practical, he's taking in about 5000 calories. That's reasonable if he's highly active. He must get a good deal on whey.

900 grams/protein would be 3600 calories. Assuming that he gets 20% of calories from fat, being about the minuimum requirement, and about 10% carbs, being about the minimum practical, he's taking in about 5000 calories. That's reasonable if he's highly active. He must get a good deal on whey.

Yeah he said he gets 5000+ calories a day, and he's active as hell, trains for strongman competitions and plays basketball. Also says he drinks 5 shakes a day.

It just got me thinking that maybe I could be short changing myself on gains, by only getting as much protein as I do. I seem to be gaining on like 200 or so grams a day, but if I hiked it up to like 300, 350, I could be gaining even more. Maybe. I dunno.

I don't think it's worthwhile going that high but I could be wrong. I don't think there's any benefit to more than 30-40% of calories from protein. Some bodybuilders think there is a benefit, it's just not reflected in the research. Sports nutrition often leads the research so maybe research will get done on extreme protein levels. In the meantime, I don't think fat should drop below 30% simply for the nutrients included with fat. I think 60-70% fat is fine if you're on a low carb diet. Most meat has about half and half protein/fat, and hunter gatherer people generally favour the fatier meats so I think this is the balance nature intended. I would use that as the default.

That must be costing hundreds a week! I've seen countless studies on the ideal amount. They always conclude that more grams of protein per kg of bodyweight is beneficial for an increase in muscle mass to a point, and then there's no further gains after a certain amount. If I'm bored later I'll post a load of links up it's just such a mission to find them.

Sounds like he's wasting quite a bit of money - I also find it hard to believe he's actually consuming 900g of protein a day, even 5 whey protein shakes - assuming a TRIPLE scoop, would only be about 375g protein.

So lets figure out the other 625g of protein:

Assuming 25g of protein per 4oz chicken breast, he would have to eat 6.25lbs of chicken breasts on top of his 5 shakes a day.

Most chicken is actually closer to 20-22g of protein per 4 oz due to the added sodium/chicken broth.

Trust me when I tell you I have no problem gorging myself on food. I weighed 300lbs because I *LOVE* to eat. However, eating that amount of food would be nearly impossible.

It sounds like he's inflating his numbers to sound impressive, similar to how most people say their arms are bigger than they are.

Oh and to give you an idea of 3 scoop protein shakes, it'd be like drinking 5 super thick milk shakes a day unless he consumed them with about 24oz of water each.

Then you've got to make room for any carbs/fat - and if he's a big guy, he has to eat carbs, it's impossible to get to be a big guy without them (muscle wise).

Or he could be eating ~3lbs of venison. Which is certainly possible in a day.

NightFaLL wrote:

Sounds like he's wasting quite a bit of money - I also find it hard to believe he's actually consuming 900g of protein a day, even 5 whey protein shakes - assuming a TRIPLE scoop, would only be about 375g protein.

So lets figure out the other 625g of protein:

Assuming 25g of protein per 4oz chicken breast, he would have to eat 6.25lbs of chicken breasts on top of his 5 shakes a day.

Most chicken is actually closer to 20-22g of protein per 4 oz due to the added sodium/chicken broth.

Trust me when I tell you I have no problem gorging myself on food. I weighed 300lbs because I *LOVE* to eat. However, eating that amount of food would be nearly impossible.

It sounds like he's inflating his numbers to sound impressive, similar to how most people say their arms are bigger than they are.

Oh and to give you an idea of 3 scoop protein shakes, it'd be like drinking 5 super thick milk shakes a day unless he consumed them with about 24oz of water each.

Then you've got to make room for any carbs/fat - and if he's a big guy, he has to eat carbs, it's impossible to get to be a big guy without them (muscle wise).

Meat is only about 20-25% protein. To get 900 grams of protein from meat you would need 8 lbs of meat, not 3. Even Ronnie Coleman doesn't eat that much. Even if it's lean venison, you would have quite a load of fat along with it and your calories would be more like 7-8000.

there's been a development, I was training with him again last night and he apologised and said he'd got confused. He actually only eats 4000 calories and 200 grams. To be fair I don't think he was trying to be deliberately misleading, his English isn't great which I think had something to do with it.

But that just raises even MORE questions! This guy is 40lbs heavier than me, and a truckload stronger, and he eats LESS protein than I do! What's the deal with that? Obviously it's enough for him to gain because the guy's a monster, but that's less than 1g per lb of bodyweight, and I always thought the golden rule was at least a gram per lb.

there's been a development, I was training with him again last night and he apologised and said he'd got confused. He actually only eats 4000 calories and 200 grams. To be fair I don't think he was trying to be deliberately misleading, his English isn't great which I think had something to do with it.

But that just raises even MORE questions! This guy is 40lbs heavier than me, and a truckload stronger, and he eats LESS protein than I do! What's the deal with that? Obviously it's enough for him to gain because the guy's a monster, but that's less than 1g per lb of bodyweight, and I always thought the golden rule was at least a gram per lb.

1g/lb is an approximation so that even mathematically challenged meatheads can do it. In reality, you can "get by" with considerably less, and no one really knows what the "optimal" level is. The RDA is .8 g/Kg which most agree is too low to build muscle. Endurance trainers need about 1-1.2 g/Kg and strength traininers need up to 1.8 g/Kg. This 1.8g/Kg is usually rounded up to 1g/lb just to be sure it's enough. 200g for a 220 lb guy is probably enough.

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